Printables
Free Chinese Printables
Everything on this page downloads directly. No signup, no watermark wall: print them for yourself, your classroom, or your homeschool table. Each practice sheet uses the classic 米字格 "rice grid" that Chinese schoolchildren learn on, with gray characters to trace before writing your own.
Chinese character practice sheets
One page per character: the model character large, its pinyin, and a full tracing grid. These are the characters from our symbols library, so almost every sheet has a story page explaining where the character comes from.
Looking for more ways to study? All Language Resources maintains a broader guide to Chinese learning apps, courses, and tools.
Chinese zodiac years chart
All twelve animals and their years, 1936 to 2031
One sheet with every animal, its character and pinyin, and eight birth years each. It carries the honest footnote most classroom charts skip: zodiac years begin at Chinese New Year, not January 1, so January and February birthdays should check the exact cutoff dates.
Download the chart (PDF)Chinese gender chart
The Qing palace chart on one page
All 336 cells, mother's nominal age 18 to 45 against the lunar month of conception, with a dot on the 43 cells where circulating copies of the chart disagree. It needs the Chinese age and the lunar month, not the ones on your wall calendar, so the gender predictor works both out from two dates and shows how accurate the chart really is.
Download the chart (PDF)Chinese paper-cutting templates
Fold a square of red paper, cut through the layers, unfold: these are the round "window flowers" pasted on Chinese windows at the New Year. Each sheet has the folding steps, the folded wedge printed at full size with the cut-away areas shaded, and a picture of the finished flower. What the shapes mean, and why the oldest paper-cuts in the world were made the same way, is on our page on Chinese paper cutting.
Three folds, seven shapes to cut: eight petals, diamonds, dots and a sawtooth ring.
Template (PDF)
Two folds and bigger shapes: the one to start with, and the one for younger children.
Template (PDF)Chinese knot step sheet
How to tie a good luck knot, in nine diagrams
The beginner's Chinese knot on one page: three loops and two ends, folded over one another in two rounds, with the cord drawn in two colors so each half can be followed. The fuller walk-through, with tightening tips and the common mistakes, is our guide to how to tie a Chinese knot.
Download the step sheet (PDF)How you may use these
- Free for personal, classroom, and homeschool use. Print as many copies as you need.
- Share the link, not the file: if you recommend these online, please link to this page rather than re-hosting the PDFs.
- Not for resale, and not for bundling into paid products.
Teaching with these and want a character we haven't covered? Write to hello@jadealmanac.com and we'll consider it for the next batch.
Common questions
Are these Chinese practice sheets really free?
Yes, and there is no signup on any of them. Click a character and the PDF downloads. We ask for an email only if you want the whole set bundled into one file, and that is a convenience, not a gate: every sheet is individually downloadable without giving us anything.
Can I use these worksheets in a classroom?
Yes. Print, photocopy and hand them out freely for classroom, homeschool, library or tutoring use. We ask only that you do not resell them or strip the attribution, and if you want to point students at the story behind a character, each sheet links to its full entry.
What is the grid on Chinese practice paper for?
It is the standard learning grid used in Chinese schools. The box is divided by a cross and diagonals so a beginner can see where each stroke starts and how the parts of a character balance against the center. Chinese characters are written to fill a square evenly, and the grid trains that proportion before you try writing on blank paper.
What order do I write Chinese strokes in?
The general rules are top to bottom, left to right, horizontal before vertical crossing it, outside frame before the contents, and any closing bottom stroke last. Stroke order is not decoration: it is what makes a character look correct to a reader, and it is also how handwriting recognition and dictionary lookup identify what you have written.